Chapter II. The Idle Land and Its Owners 



Some description of the amount and kind of idle farm land and the nature 

 of its ownership was obtained for 20 towns scattered over the state. 

 It is believed that the number and scatter of these towns is sufficient to give 

 a fairly representative picture of the idle farm land problem in the state 

 and to some extent for New England. This information was obtained from 

 informed local people, most often from one or more selectmen who had some 

 acquaintance with modern farming. Besides recording information about the 

 idle farm land and its ownership, the idle places were located on town maps 

 which were made about ten years earlier. These maps showed the roads and the 

 location and size (number of cows, hens, apple trees, etc.) of the farms 

 at that time. In connection with another study, the towns on these maps 

 have been divided into areas numbered from 1 to 7 in order 11 is best, 7 

 h poorest) of adaptability to dairy farming. 1 The first three numbers are 

 for favorable areas — 1 is most favorable, 2 is very favorable, and 3 is 

 favorable. Number 4 areas are marginal for commercial dairying. Numbers 

 5 and 6 are unfavorable and very unfavorable, respectively, and number 7 

 is non-agricultural. An area classified as favorable to dairy farming is not 

 necessarily one which is all good farm land. It is one which is mostly suit- 

 able for dairy farms containing some variation in soils and in land uses, 

 including tillable land, pasture, and woods. 



These maps were very helpful in indicating the nature of the idle places 

 and their location in relation to active farms. It is necessary to remember 

 what these maps represent to understand some of the later discussion. 



Figure 1. This fie'd would qua'ify as "id!e farm !and" in this study. It is producing only a 

 light growth of grass and weeds, but it is potentially productive, easily tilled, and of 



adequate size. 



Definition of Idle Farm Land. Early in the inquiry it became necessary 

 to arrive at a working definition for "idle farm land." First, what is farm 

 land? It was indicated previously that we were not interested in land whose 

 farming would be uneconomical. We defined what we were looking for to 

 the selectmen-farmers as "land as good as or better than that being used 



fHarry C. Woodworth and John C. Holmes, Dairy Opportunity Areas in New 

 Hampshire, Bulletin 340, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, June 1942. 



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